Sunday, July 24, 2011

Almost time to Go

The packing is almost done. Tomorrow I pack the car. Monday I drive. Tuesday I drive. Ugh, that's a lot of driving. I'm excited, but it's starting to hit me. I'm going to miss my man. We were doing the long(ish)-distance thing before the summer. It's not exciting to do that again. And I'm going to have all the cats. So it's sad to know that he'll be all by himself. And without a car. We took the bus today for the first time. He wanted to do a test-run before he had to ride to work. It was easy, and made him feel better. And I feel better that he knows what to do. I'm going to worry about him a lot anyway.

The kitties have been cute. Friday learned to jump from the table to the fridge. She used to need something on the table to help her up. Now she can get on the cabinets with her brothers. She and Parker took a nap up there yesterday. They were so cute!!

Friday can jump on the dresser and the counter all by herself now, too. Which means she's been getting into a lot more trouble these days! But she's such a sweet kitten. I think she thinks she's a person. She has started trying to pet us by gently pawing our faces. And she "kisses" our noses. She's also kind of crazy. She loves to play, and she never hesitates to attack anything that moves near her, even before she sees what it is. Even though she attacks a lot, she is very careful not to hurt us. I don't think she's quite figured out that our feet are attached, but other than that, she never uses her claws on us. The scratches we get are from her jumping up into our laps and using her claws to hang on.

I'm nervous about the trip. I'm nervous that I'll have trouble with something. I'm pretty sure it'll go smoothly, but you never can tell. 1200 miles is a lot of time for something to happen in.

I'm excited about getting home. I haven't spent the night at my mom's house in over 2 years. So it'll be interesting. My mom has organized a girl's day out with me, my sisters, my niece, my aunt, and one of my many cousins. I'm excited for that. I haven't gotten to spend time out with them for a long time. We are also going to have a family dinner while I'm in town. We do that once a month anyway. I always look forward to that day. It's a good time to hang out and catch up with everyone.

But I'm most looking forward to a local restaurant that I haven't eaten at in years. Biscuit Express has the BEST biscuits (and Dr. Pepper) anywhere. I'm a southerner. I like biscuits. And it seems if you leave the South, no one knows how to make them. Biscuit Express is a drive-through joint in my home town. It gets a lot of traffic from commuters into Huntsville. Because their biscuits are amazing. When I was in high school, that's what I had for breakfast every day, but they close at about 1pm. So when I moved to school two and a half hours away, it got really hard to get back home in time to eat there. So I haven't been in a long time. I plan to eat there every morning I'm in town.

Although I'm really looking forward to getting back home, I have liked Albuquerque. I live in this neighborhood called Four Hills. Not far away, there are four big hills (which in Alabama would be called mountains). Heck, I'd call them mountains here if it weren't for the REAL mountains just to the north of the four hills. Here's the hills. The best view is from the access ramp to the interstate, but that's not exactly a good place to take pictures from. So I took pictures from the road just outside the air force base, where it's nice and empty.

It's so odd that the empty space out here stays just like that. A few bushes, maybe a tumbleweed or two, but generally empty. Where I come from, there would be so many trees you wouldn't be able to see anything. I think people from out here probably feel claustrophobic when they come out East. If you get up a little bit, you can see for hundreds of miles.

When I take the boy to work, we drive past the Nuclear History Museum. They have all kinds of planes and stuff outside, as well as a rocket. I'm not sure why the rocket is there, but it reminds me a bit of home. Here's the Albuquerque rocket.

Every time I drive from school to Huntsville, the first sign of home is the space and rocket center (Marshall Space Flight Center). They have two big rockets out front, and they are easily visible from the interstate. When I see them, I always relax. Here's the view from the interstate.

(photo from al.com article about that intersection's inefficiencies - go read it here)
Notice the trees? Yea, I miss those. There are trees out here, but only where people plant them. And they're small. All in all, I'm looking forward to going home. Alabama is definitely still home.